Oct. 11, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Andy Dillon’s surprise resignation Friday as Michigan’s state treasurer isn’t likely to have significant impact on Detroit’s bankruptcy, officials said, but his departure certainly did little to quiet criticism in city political circles.

Dillon played a key role in efforts to right Detroit’s financial mess before emergency manager Kevyn Orr and Gov. Rick Snyder ultimately decided a Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy was the only option left. Bill Nowling, Orr’s spokesman, said Orr will work with whomever Snyder appoints as Dillon’s replacement.

“He’s given 110% to the city’s restructuring,” Nowling said. “Andy has done a thankless job during this very tumultuous time.”

Dillon served as the face of the Snyder administration in Detroit’s pre-bankruptcy days as the city’s finances verged on collapse in 2011-12. From the beginning, it was a fraught role, working as the appointed treasurer of a Republican governor unpopular in Detroit, negotiating significant fiscal changes in a city dominated by Democrats.

There’s still deep resentment at City Hall over Dillon’s role in the 2012 consent agreement that city officials signed under the threat of the state appointing an emergency manager. That deal, which ultimately failed to prevent state intervention, called for approval of a number of reform-minded steps, including hiring outside contractors to help fix an inflexible city government unable to cope with revenue losses.

City Council members complained that Dillon would set up goals Detroit officials had to meet, only to change them later without explanation. Council President Saunteel Jenkins, who took criticism for at times agreeing with some of the steps the state proposed, said she and others who believed Detroit ultimately would need the state’s help to get out of its financial meltdown came to feel they’d been misled.

“We started the process believing that this would be a true partnership and it never was,” Jenkins said Friday. “Certainly the state used their power and, frankly, the threat of an EM as a negotiating tool to bring in certain contractors. The question is, tens of millions of dollars later, point to one place where the quality of life has improved, or one city department that’s running better.”

Those words echo statements in recent weeks by Mayor Dave Bing, who declined to comment on Dillon’s resignation.

Former Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, a political consultant and Wayne State University lecturer who’s an ally of Dillon, said Dillon’s popularity suffered the fate of the messenger who’s killed for bearing bad news not of his own making.

“Nobody likes the guy who finally comes in and says, ‘We can’t keep doing things in the same way,’ ” Cockrel said. “He’s played an important but very unpopular role. He won’t get a lot of thanks, but at the end of the day I think he was working in the best intentions.”